Terrifying videos have emerged from storm-struck over the last two days that look more like something out of a disaster movie than real life.
Clips from people caught in the deluge have shown giant hail stones, flooded buildings, flying furniture and debris crashing through an underpass.
The United Arab Emirates yesterday suffered horrendous floods which swamped the airport and many of the surrounding roads, forcing dozens of flights to be cancelled as travellers crammed into the concourse to shelter from the torrential downpour.
Other videos shared on social media showed how cars were filled with water, forcing hundreds of motorists to abandon their vehicles and swim to safety. Some cars were completely submerged, with the top of their roofs barely breaking the surface.
In one shocking clip, debris from the road above suddenly crashes through an underpass. The wind is so strong, the debris is pushed far under the road above at shocking speeds, while rain lashes in at a seemingly impossible angle.
The sky above is almost pitch black. Flashes of lighting briefly illuminate the low, thick grey clouds that completely block out views of Dubai’s skyline.
The camera pans around to show people running for cover, before the camera cuts to the face of the woman who is filming.
She can barely face into the wind, and her words are entirely drowned out.
The clip is one of many showing the devastation in Dubai.
Yesterday, when the desert sun should have been baking the city, it was instead engulfed in the same thick grey clouds – blocking out the light. Clips show how flashes of lighting would briefly light up the clouds, before going dark once more.
In several clips posted to an Instagram user’s story reel, the scale of the deluge becomes clear. Cars are seen driving down flooded street.
Others have come to a full stop, with their drivers standing in knee-high water.
In another clip posted by the same user, one person is seen swimming down the flooded road having seemingly abandoned their vehicle.
A third clip then shows the streets of Dubai plunged into darkness.
Torrential rain falls from the sky and strong wind is picked up on the microphone.
In addition to the flooded streets, several buildings have also been breached.
In one clip from Dubai’s airport, people are seen wading through ankle-deep water while taking shelter from the brutal weather outside.
Some seem almost resigned to the situation, sitting in chairs around tables.
On the runways, shocking footage showed several jets cutting through murky water, as the huge aircrafts appeared to be floating in videos that went viral online.
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Outside the walls of the airport, footage from those trapped in the wet conditions shared video and images that resemble an apocalyptic world.
A handful of brave drivers battling the elements were spotted sitting atop their cars and waiting for rescue under the black sky, but many more chose to abandon their vehicles and swim to safety.
Several cars were seen abandoned in deep water, while many were caught in traffic jams while trying to escape the floods, only to become submerged anyway.
A clip shared on X early on Tuesday showed entrepreneur and YouTuber Jordan Welch trapped in his Rolls Royce in Dubai as deep water flooded the road.
‘My Rolls Royce got flooded and we’re stuck in the middle of the road in Dubai,’ he .
‘Just like all my friends in crypto… today I am underwater,’ he posted in a follow-up.
But others, in Teslas, have taken to X, formerly , to praise while having ‘the best experience with the Y model’ as they ‘floated’ down the flooded roads while ‘every other car is stuck’.
Hundreds of buildings and shops were destroyed throughout the day, as the large masses of water crashed through windows and sent vehicles sailing through walls.
Flood water was seen cascading through luxury underground malls while shoppers in designer clothes waded through water.
Above ground, howling winds blew furniture off tower-block balconies while the skies turned black with apocalyptic videos showing lightning strikes every few seconds.
Footage from Tuesday also showed water crashing through the ceiling of a Flying Tiger as shops began to flood and infrastructure buckle under the pressure.
Products were blasted out across the shop floor as water poured from the ceiling, bystanders helpless to act.
Unstable weather conditions were expected to continue in the region through to today, UAE’s National Center of Meteorology said, though the bulk of the rain appears to have moved eastwards.
The rain began late on Monday, soaking the sands and roads of Dubai with some 0.8in of rain, according to meteorological data from Dubai International Airport.
The storms intensified at around 9am local time on Tuesday and continued throughout the day, dumping more rain and hail on the overwhelmed city.
By the end of Tuesday, more than 5.6in of rain had soaked Dubai over 24 hours.
An average year sees 3.7in of rain recorded at Dubai International Airport.
The deluge flooded the airport – a hub for the long-haul carrier Emirates – disrupting flights through the world’s busiest hub for international travel.
The state-run WAM news agency called Tuesday’s rain ‘a historic weather event’ that surpassed ‘anything documented since the start of data collection in 1949’.
That was before the discovery of crude oil in the energy-rich nation which was then part of a British protectorate known as the Trucial States.
Rain also fell in Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
At the airport, standing water lapped on taxiways as aircraft landed.
Arrivals were halted on Tuesday night, and passengers struggled to reach terminals through the floodwater covering surrounding roads.
One couple, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity to speak freely in a country with strict laws that criminalise critical speech, called the situation at the airport ‘absolute carnage’.
‘You cannot get a taxi. There’s people sleeping in the Metro station. There’s people sleeping in the airport,’ the man said on Wednesday.
One reason for the acute rain in the UAE may have been ‘cloud seeding’, in which small planes flown by the government go through clouds burning special salt flares.
Those flares can increase precipitation.
Several reports quoted meteorologists at the National Centre for Meteorology as saying they flew six or seven cloud-seeding flights before the rain.
The centre did not immediately respond to questions on Wednesday, though flight-tracking data analysed by the Associated Press showed one aircraft affiliated with the UAE’s cloud-seeding efforts flew around the country on Sunday.
The UAE, which relies heavily on energy-hungry desalination plants to provide water, carries out cloud seeding in part to increase its dwindling, limited groundwater.
Schools across the UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms, largely shut ahead of the storm and government employees were largely working remotely if able.
Many workers also stayed at home, though some ventured out, with some finding their vehicles stranded in deeper-than-expected water covering some roads.
Authorities sent tanker trucks out into the streets and highways to pump away the water. Water poured into some homes, forcing people to bail out their houses.
The country’s hereditary rulers offered no overall damage or injury information for the nation, as some people slept in their flooded vehicles on Tuesday night.
In Ras al-Khaimah, the country’s northernmost emirate, police said one 70-year-old man died when his vehicle was swept away by floodwater.
Fujairah, an emirate on the UAE’s eastern coast, saw the heaviest rainfall on Tuesday with 5.7in falling there.
Authorities cancelled school and the government instituted remote working again for Wednesday.
Rain is unusual in the UAE, an arid, Arabian Peninsula nation, but occurs periodically during the cooler winter months. Many roads and other areas lack drainage given the lack of regular rainfall, causing flooding.
Meanwhile, in neighbouring Oman, a sultanate on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, at least 18 people were killed in heavy rain in recent days, according to a statement on Tuesday from the country’s emergency committee.
That includes some 10 schoolchildren swept away in a vehicle with an adult, which saw condolences come into the country from rulers across the region.